Concrete Angel
by BlackShadowHorse
Summary: Dark one shot, based off of the song Concrete Angel, by Martina McBride. Rated T. Dahlia Case has a burden that she can't share with the rest of the world. When two family friends finally have the courage to go check on her will it be to late, or will they save the precious 12 year old girl?


AN: If you are extremely sensitive, I suggest you don't read this. Concrete Angel, is a song sung by Martina McBride. This song always makes me cry. This is rather dark and twisty, and it does contain death.

A slender girl of twelve wandered down the road, walking to school with her blue backpack and a lunch that she packed in a paper bag. Everyone along her route knows the girl, but nobody knows what it was she was holding back. She rarely smiled, and always kept her head down low to the ground.

She was wearing the same dress that she'd worn yesterday, one of the people had noted, it was perfect for hiding the bruises though, which is why the girl had chosen to wear it yet again. Her middle school teacher wonders why Dahlia chose to wear the same dress again, but she didn't ask. It wasn't her place. It was hard to see the pain that the girl was in behind the mask that she'd perfected so long ago.

She was bearing a burden that she knew that she'd never be able to share with anyone else. The storm raged inside her body, and Dahlia had wished deep down that she'd never have been born, she thought as she kicked a stone, the rain pelting down on her pale skin, and tears streaming down her face, that were hidden by the wind and the rain. She stood quietly, leaning against a brick wall like a statue. She knew that she'd never get out of this world, the thought filled her head, making her heart break even further. "Why?" She asked softly to herself, staring up at the sky.

Her only escape from her hell was the thought of her mother, who'd died two years ago. That's when everything had started, she thought sadly toying with the gold cross around her neck. "Why did you leave me Mom?" Dahlia whispered, letting her mind take her back to the past, where she'd been loved, and safe.

She'd upset her father again by breaking a dish. She knew that she'd deserved tonights punishment, and now that he'd gone out to the bar again, she let herself sob loudly into her pillows. She knew that her neighbors could hear her, but she knew that they didn't care, and they turned off the lights like they did every other night. Dahlia clinged to her pillow. There was something seriously wrong tonight, even breathing hurt her.

She was caught in the hands of fate, and she knew that by morning, it would be too late. She wouldn't make it. Her father had broken her this time… had broken something inside of her that couldn't be repaired.

"Carlos, did you see Joe Case's daughter this morning? Yesterday I could have sworn that I saw bruises on her lower legs." Alice said with a deep frown, she knew that Joe had been having a drinking problem since his wife died, but surely he couldn't be taking it out on his daughter, could he?

"No, I thought that it was weird. Dahlia's mother left us a spare key, maybe we should go check on her?" Carlos said, brushing his lips against his wife's forehead. They lived about four doors down from Joe, and they hadn't been allowed to visit with Dahlia other than on holidays since Joe's wife, Emily Case had died in a car accident. They loved the girl like she was their own daughter, and it had killed them both to not be allowed to see her other than when the girl walked past their house on the way to and from school everyday.

"Yeah, just let me get on my sneakers," Alice smiled at her husband, trying to hide the worry that was written all over her face, grabbing her set of keys off the little end table by the front door. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she gripped her husbands hand, squeezing it gently, as they got closer and closer to the Case home.

Carlos tried the front door, it was unlocked. "Joe?" Carlos called out to his old friend, and he glanced at the kitchen floor, where a dish lay, shattered. Carlos frowned and began searching the first floor. No Joe, or Dahlia.

"Her bags by the front door, so she didn't leave for school yet." Alice said. In all the time that she's known Dahlia, she'd never missed school unless her mother had made her. Dahlia loved school, she loved to learn. As they climbed up the stairs they checked Dahlia's bedroom. The young girl, who hadn't even become a teenager yet, was lying there in her own blood. Alice's scream echoed around the quiet neighborhood.

"A-Alice? C-Carlos?" Dahlia murmured softly, reaching out for Alice's hand.

"Just hold on baby, the ambulance is on it's way. Why didn't you tell us Dahlia? Why didn't you tell us what was going on?" Alice cried softly, kneeling beside the girl and gripping her hand, which seemed to be the only place the girl didn't have bruises.

"It wasn't your burden to bear." Dahla murmured softly, tears filling her chocolate eyes. "It was mine. " Dahlia winced painfully as she stared at the face of the two adults who had came to her rescue, but by now, she was already fading fast, the light leaving her eyes. "I can see my mommy again." Dahlia whispered softly to the crying adults, who held her hand.

"We love you Dahlia, please, please hold on. Don't leave us." Carlos and Alice begged the girl, the tears streaming down their faces, as they clung to the hope that the girl would survive despite the grimness of her situation.

The girl smiled at them, which broke their hearts even further. "I love you both too," Dahlia whispered, and she passed out, a small smile on her face, dying happily because she knew now that people had noticed her pain and suffering, and that they had loved her, when she'd given up hope so long ago that anyone had still cared.

An angel statue with an upturned face stood beneath the shade of a giant oak tree. Alice let her fingers trace over Dahlia Case's name written on the polished rock, sobs leaving her body, as she sank to her knees with Carlos beside her, burying her face in his chest. "Why?" She sobbed. "How had anyone forgot that this girl was nursing a broken heart? How could Joe have done this to his own daughter? How could he have beaten her so badly that he practically shattered her ribs and pierced her heart?" Alice continued to cry, her fingers gripping the lapels of Carlos's suit even tighter, clinging to him for her support.

Alice's and Carlos's tears mixed in with the rain, as they stared at the concrete angel that stood through the wind and the rain. Dahlia had never been able to rise above the world that she was forced into. Carlos squeezed his wife closer to him, and they knelt there in the cold wet grass, until the sun finally broke through the dark, wet weather, and began to shine down on the angel statue, and on the couple knelt in front of it. "I love you Dahlia," Alice murmured, touching the cool stone once more.


End file.
